$10,000 REWARD
Leah Freeman (15) was kidnapped and murdered on June 28, 2000 and police are asking for witnesses to step forward.
Nancy Grace’s Cold Cases is a CNN.com webpage that offers information about dozens of murder and missing persons incidents where detectives have run out of leads to follow and the files go cold. Some of the files date back decades and some are just a couple of years old.
While undoubtedly there are family members and friends of missing people who are clinging to a glimmer of hope, a web-based service that receives millions of visitors daily, such as CNN, is an absolute blessing. Likewise, for family members and friends of murder victims, this level of exposure may just lead to a witness or someone with information to come forward.
In effort to get more eyes to view more cold case files, Legal Paramount will regularly share stories of crimes that have gone unsolved. Get set, because the mystery starts now.
If you have information about the cold case featured below, please step up and do the right thing and help a family find closure by contacting the authorities.
Leah Freeman was 15 years old when she disappeared on June 28, 2000 new her home in Coquille, Oregon. One month later her body was found in Fairview, a neighboring town.
According to police reports, Leah was believed to be walking home from a friend’s house around dusk when someone grabbed her, leaving only a tennis shoe behind.
Leah’s mother, Cory Courtright, said she last saw her daughter earlier that day. “She was so happy. She and her boyfriend were washing the windshield of his car and horsing around with the wet sponge. It was 4 p.m. and she jumped and kissed me on the cheek and told me she loved me before she took off.”
Police investigators discovered that Leah had left her friend Sherrie Mitchell’s house in a spat because Sherrie’s mother wouldn’t allow her to go jogging with Leah after dark. Apparently Leah overheard Sherry and her mother arguing, which led to a tiff between the two girls. Leah then left to go meet up with her boyfriend.
When Leah didn’t arrive to meet her boyfriend, he went to the Mithell’s house and called the Courtright house to ask if Leah was there.
Suspicion of the boyfriend was raised when police caught up with him at the house where the boyfriend, friends, and Leah were at earlier that day, and noticed a white men’s tank top on the porch. Leah was reported to be wearing a white men’s tank top when she went missing. The house owned by relatives of a friend of the boyfriend was also littered with beer cans the day police first visited, but by the time the police had returned with a search warrant the entire house had been cleaned and the white tank top was nowhere to be found.
A search of the boyfriend’s car raised further suspicion when they discovered the trunk had been completely gutted between the time Leah went missing and the warrant was served. When asked why the car’s trunk lining, spare tire, and tire iron was missing, the boyfriend’s father told police there had been a fuel leak and everything had to be removed.
If that wasn’t suspicious enough, how about the bonfire the boyfriend’s family held in their backyard the day after Leah went missing.
There is a $10,000 reward offered for information that leads to an arrest. If you know what happened, call (541) 396-2114.
Related Information
Leah Freeman Website
New Developments in the Leah Freeman Murder Case
Justice for Leah Facebook
Police Believe Investigation Moving Towards Resolution
Search For Justice: A Decade After Her Daughter Died, Coquille Mom Still Wants Answers